We Had A Moment

A moment I cherish and hopefully will remember for a long time. Avery is not overly fond of me whenever her grandmas are around. I totally understand that it's normal for her to prefer them to me, especially at her age where she is already trying to be more independent of me. And while I know this and can't blame her since both grandmas are so sweet & fun, I can't help that it hurts my feelings a little bit. My mom was here with us this past week, which was a wonderful blessing, but Avery tends to act differently when she is here or when she spends extended time with either grandma. She tests the limits big time, doesn't obey very quickly and doesn't act very nice. Although I am starting to better understand the personality God gave Avery, it is still a mystery to me why she sometimes behaves so differently from her normal everyday self.

Anyway, back to the moment. My mom left Thursday, then Friday our house was showing so we spent some time at Brian's parents house, so all that to say, we were around grandmas all week until yesterday afternoon. A huge storm hit us, which is still hitting us right now and all the girls took a great nap yesterday afternoon... Laney in her room, Tatum in A&T's room and Avery on the couch. I was sitting at the computer which is right by our couch just doing some work, when Avery picked her little head up from her nap and said, "all that thunder & lightning is just waking me up!" My first instinct was to tell her to lay back down and rest because I have work to do. But thankfully, it hit me that this was a rare opportunity to have some time with just Avery & I.

So I picked her up, wrapped up her big old almost-4-year-old body in her blankie and carried her like a baby outside. We sat in the rocker under our patio and watched the thunder & lightning together. I thought she would fidget and want to get down, but she didn't. Instead she wanted me to wrap her up in her blankie and just hold her. First she wanted to sit on my lap facing the storm, then she decided she wanted to turn sideways in my lap and curl up and rest her head against my chest. So I just squeezed her and we rocked for probably 20 minutes. I didn't realize this was my moment until it was almost over, but it hit me after about 15 minutes that this moment is one I want to always remember. Just she & I outside under the patio watching a storm, her clinging to me, me clinging to her, me starting to cry as I realize how painfully much I love her. How desperately I needed that moment of her needing me. As quickly as I realized how special it was, she looked up at me and told me we needed to check on the lillies in our front yard to see if all this rain had made them finally bloom. So the moment was over. We got up and walked inside to go check on the lillies in the front. But I cherish those moment with her, especially as we contemplate moving out of this house where we brought all 3 of our kids home from the hospital, where they learned how to walk, where we've sat under that patio so many countless hours watching them play in our backyard, where we've grown as a family. God has been so good to us here.